Discovery to Product is offering a fall cohort of the Igniter program, building on the past success of Igniter rounds that helped start up 17 companies over the past three years. Above, botany Professor Edgar Spalding pitching his idea for predicting viable plant seed strains to fellow entrepreneurs. Photo: Bryce Richter

To ignite is to heat, to set in motion, to catch fire. Sometimes the spark comes from an idea over coffee at the student union or during a brainstorm with friends in a campus dorm. Other times it develops in a petri dish in a lab, in a practice room at the School of Music, or on a white board in a classroom.

At UW–Madison ­— a hub of learning, networking, mentorship and creativity — one can find all the ingredients necessary to spark entrepreneurship. This is why the Discovery to Product (D2P) initiative, located within the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education, created its Igniter program. Igniter has helped in the creation of 17 startup companies over the past three years and it is now calling for the next cohort of entrepreneurs.

D2P works with Igniter project teams for as long as needed to achieve commercialization — a depth of commitment not typical of startup accelerators.

“Igniting ideas is exciting and UW–Madison is stronger when it broadens entrepreneurial opportunity — when students, faculty and staff alike can test their ideas for marketplace readiness, and when the best innovations can rise to the top and be successful,” says Andy Richards, interim director of D2P. “D2P strives to catalyze more entrepreneurial activity on campus, and one way of doing that is D2P’s Igniter program.”

The next round of the program begins on Oct. 17 with an intensive five-week sprint that includes a weekly series of three-hour workshops running from 9 a.m. to noon. During this portion of the program, project teams identify their value propositions and target customer segments. In group settings, teams learn to incorporate tools and techniques like the Business Model Canvas, customer development, lean startup methodologies, desk research, in-depth customer interviews, and value proposition design.

Igniter CalendarClasses run from 9 a.m. to noon

Class

Date

Week 1

October 17, 2017

Week 2

October 24, 2017

Week 3

October 31, 2017

Week 4

November 7, 2017

Week 5

November 14, 2017

Igniter project teams will also work one-on-one with D2P innovation and commercialization specialists to address issues and challenges associated with specific innovations and business opportunities. D2P and the Igniter program aim to help develop projects on campus so they are ready to receive equity, Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) awards or other types of funding needed to form a startup and to help ideas or inventions achieve market readiness.

D2P staff are experienced entrepreneurs, startup executives, product development managers and technologists with industry experiences. D2P works with Igniter project teams for as long as needed to achieve commercialization — a depth of commitment not typical of startup accelerators.

“Igniter puts the Wisconsin Idea in action, helping move the innovation and expertise found at UW-Madison to the public marketplace.”

Marsha Mailick

For teams that successfully emerge from the initial Igniter program with a compelling product or market fit, D2P may be able to provide limited funding through Igniter grants to pay for initial commercialization tasks. D2P does not receive any equity in return for funding or the help offered by the D2P team.

“Through entrepreneurship support and programs such as Igniter, UW-Madison is finding new ways to translate research results into practical knowledge and technological innovations, to help transform ideas and technology into long-term societal benefits,” says Marsha Mailick, vice chancellor for research and graduate education. “Igniter puts the Wisconsin Idea in action, helping move the innovation and expertise found at UW-Madison to the public marketplace.”

Daniel Grabois, associate professor of horn at UW-Madison’s School of Music, demonstrates the theremin, one of many instruments rounding out the collection that will be available for use through the UW2020-funded Electro-Acoustic Research Space (EARS). Photo: Natasha Kassulke

Starting today, Sept. 12, the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education of the University of Wisconsin–Madison is accepting applications for funding from high-risk, high-impact research proposals. UW2020 funds both investigative and infrastructure projects at UW–Madison and UW–Extension, with the goal of supporting collaborative, multidisciplinary and transformative research.

Round 4 funding will be provided for one to two years, depending on the needs and scope of the project. Awards range from $100,000 to $500,000. An initial submission of a brief abstract is due by Oct. 16, with full proposals due Dec. 4. UW2020 is funded by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), with support from UW–Extension.

Early recipients of UW2020 funding, from the School of Music to the School of Medicine and Public Health and beyond, have assembled interdisciplinary teams to address their research questions and have attracted outside funding with initial support from the program.

Grabois demonstrates the eigenharp, an electronic music instrument, which allows the musician to play and improvise using a wide range of sound. Photo: Natasha Kassulke

Daniel Grabois, a professor of horn in UW–Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music, used UW2020 funding to complete installation of the Electro-Acoustic Research Space (EARS), which has its grand opening at 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 15. The new facility will allow student, staff and faculty musicians to use digital technology to manipulate and transform the sounds made by acoustic instruments and to create new timbres and combinations of computer-generated sounds. The result will be new compositions for electronic and acoustic instruments, as well as a space to rehearse and record new work.

Grabois predicts that the campus community will be impressed by what they find in EARS. A dizzying array of electronic and acoustic instruments, mixing boards and speakers are connected by a nerve center of computers. Most of the equipment was purchased from Wisconsin companies. In addition to faculty and students in the music school, other performing artists and even filmmakers will have access to the space. Grabois also plans to host open houses for the community at EARS.

“You can say ‘oh, cool’ to just about everything in this room,” says Grabois. “Think of it as a library that has a lot of potential knowledge in it and you go there and dip into it as you see fit.”

“We built this collection and set-up with being mobile in mind. Our research is concerts off campus,” he says.

Luis Populin

On the other side of campus, Associate Professor of Neuroscience Luis Populin has used UW2020 funding to gather an interdisciplinary team that is working to combine two types of brain imaging technology — positron emission tomography (PET) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) — to better understand the effects of a drug used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity (ADHD) on long-term brain function and neurochemistry. The results are expected to inform research on drug and behavioral treatments for ADHD, schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders.

The research group draws from medicine, engineering, medical physics and the Waisman Center. Each researcher brings expertise in their field that, combined, allows the project to move along faster than otherwise possible.

“This kind of collaborative project is possible at UW–Madison and probably not in many other places,” Populin says. “That’s because we have the capability of doing the fMRI part and the PET part, plus we have a facility that makes the necessary tracers, and the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center.”

“We have all the tools available on campus, but we would not have been able to couple them to the required expertise necessary without this UW2020 grant,” says Bradley Christian, co-director of the Brain Imaging Core at the Waisman Center and a member of the brain imaging project.

The PET/MR technology, available at UW–Madison and only a few other institutions in the world, is part of a UW2020-funded study on the effects of therapeutic drugs. Photo: Alan McMillan

The team recently received a $1.7 million grant from the defense research agency DARPA, which Populin says is a direct result of the UW2020 funding. The newly funded study is part of a larger DARPA-funded project led by Justin Williams, professor and chair of UW–Madison’s Department of Biomedical Engineering.

“My sense is that this is just the beginning of obtaining more grants like that,” Populin says.

“This is a good example of the Wisconsin Idea in action. We are here to do things that have never been done before and may have the potential to benefit society at large,” Populin says. “Sometimes you just need to, as we have, get the right group of people together and then the ideas start to flow.”

“When I hear about the amazing research being accomplished by UW-Madison researchers such as Daniel Grabois and Luis Populin, I am reminded of how transformative UW2020 is in allowing us to fund the projects our UW–Madison researchers have dreamed about doing,” says Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education Marsha Mailick.

“We are excited to announce a new round of funding just as we are learning about the success of earlier rounds that includes generating extramural funding, publishing results and, ultimately, changing lives for the better,” says Mailick.

]]>Noted educator, scientist and entrepreneur Mark Cook dies at 61http://news.wisc.edu/noted-educator-scientist-and-entrepreneur-mark-cook-dies-at-61/
Sun, 10 Sep 2017 17:47:50 +0000https://admin.news.wisc.edu/?p=41125Mark Cook, a professor of animal science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison whose research yielded advances in human health and food production, died from complications of cancer at home on Saturday, Sept. 9, in the presence of friends and family.

With more than 40 patents, three startup companies and a strong record of involvement in university initiatives, Mark Cook was not one to be hobbled by conventions, departmental boundaries or a “we can’t do that here” mindset. Photo: Michael Kienitz, used with permission

“Mark was a distinguished scientist, with a remarkable commitment to innovation and technology transfer,” says Kathryn VandenBosch, dean of the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences. “His work embodied the Wisconsin Idea, seeking advances and solutions in the areas of health and agriculture. He was also a man of integrity, who felt a deep sense of service and commitment to his students, colleagues and the university. He will be greatly missed.”

An avowed “chickenologist,” Cook was well-known in the poultry industry, says Daniel Schaefer, chair of Cook’s department and his friend for 17 years. “His discoveries and opinions were respected internationally. Even though he had no formal extension appointment, he was frequently called by poultry companies on nutrition or immunology questions.”

Cook earned a Ph.D. at Louisiana State University in 1982 while studying the relationship between pathogens, nutrition and the poultry immune system. At the UW, his wide-ranging interests and unstoppable curiosity found full expression in the entrepreneurial activity he pursued with a passion to make a difference in the world.

His discoveries were surprising and displayed immense intellectual clarity, but he realized that they could only reach their full benefit by being commercialized.

In 2005, Cook and colleagues created the spinoff company Isomark to advance a technology that promises a much earlier, hands-off detection of infection, based solely on measuring isotopes in the breath.

An avowed “chickenologist,” Cook — shown in a 2016 holiday photo in his lab — was well-known in the poultry industry, says Daniel Schaefer, chair of Cook’s department and his friend for 17 years. Photo: Gage Wautkee

In 2015, Cook helped form Ab E Discovery to advance the finding that chickens can produce a protein that blocks a signal used by bacteria to shut down the host immune system. The protein is grown in eggs and sprayed on animal feed to replace antibiotics. Given the drive to replace those ubiquitous drugs in the meat industry, Ab E could be poised for rapid growth.

More recently, Cook’s interest in novel animal byproducts spawned an effort to develop an oil used by birds to preen their feathers as a fish food additive. The oil, called cosajaba by Cook and his collaborators, seems to dampen the stress response in fish — a potential solution to a common problem in aquaculture.

Cook’s biggest commercial success to date was work on conjugated linoleic acid, a fatty acid that became a dietary supplement marketed for reducing body fat while maintaining lean muscle mass. Cook developed CLA in the 1990s in conjunction with Michael Pariza, then a professor of food microbiology and toxicology. The alliance grew quickly, based on the accessibility that seemed a Cook hallmark.

“Back about 1989, I was walking toward Picnic Point on a bright day,” recalls Pariza, “and he came running by and stopped to talk. We got to discussing our research and by the end of the walk, we were collaborators. He was that kind of guy. You’d start talking about your ideas, he’d inject his, and pretty soon you got something going.”

Cook formed a company to advance the finding that chickens can produce a protein that blocks a signal used by bacteria to shut down the host immune system. The protein is grown in eggs and sprayed on animal feed to replace antibiotics. WARF Photo

Cook was a modest man who possessed “capabilities and thought processes well beyond many of us,” says Gerry Weiss, a Grant County farmer with a doctorate in animal science who conducted swine trials for several of Cook’s projects. “His students, professional associates and friends addressed him with a level of respect and admiration that very few people will ever hope to receive.”

A second pillar of Cook’s productivity was a new model of research funding, says Schaefer. “Instead of having the program depend on federal grants, he emphasized patenting and royalties. Mark became dissatisfied with the fact that once he published a discovery, it became public knowledge, and therefore was no longer useful to an entrepreneur or business” because it could not be protected by patent. “He determined to transfer his intellectual property to WARF (Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation), and thereby protect the usefulness of the information for licensees, who could put the discovery into commercial practice.”

Those interests were the logical groundwork for the 2014 Discovery to Product initiative, in whose formation Cook was instrumental. D2P is a collaboration between UW-Madison and WARF that advises and supports business ideas from faculty, staff and students. Fifteen businesses have been created from the 24 projects funded by D2P; other projects are in the pipeline.

John Biondi, D2P’s founding director, calls Cook “one of those rare individuals who is not only at the top of his game academically, but is a triple threat. He’s an excellent teacher and professor, an incredibly insightful and clever researcher, and was able to turn that research into entrepreneur endeavors at an amazing rate. By looking outside of academia to commercial endeavors, he was able to shine a light down both those paths.”

Cook was a modest man who possessed “capabilities and thought processes well beyond many of us,” says Gerry Weiss, a Grant County farmer who worked on several of Cook’s projects. “His students, professional associates and friends addressed him with a level of respect and admiration that very few people will ever hope to receive.” Photo: Sevie Kenyon

Beyond the track record of success, Cook had other ways to encourage creativity and collaboration, says Biondi. “He was very mild-mannered, humble, self-effacing. You would never know he was so accomplished. He made no attempt to create a cult of personality. It was really the opposite. He worked with people on projects as an equal as opposed to a demigod, yet he was exceptional for his ability to innovate, to develop these things out of his lab.”

Amid his wide scientific, entrepreneurial and industry interests, Cook devoted more than a decade to teaching the introductory animal science course. “He taught it for the long haul, with a commitment to the freshmen in the class,” says Schaefer, “and he taught it with enthusiasm and rigor. He was highly regarded by those students. Mark was a great teacher.”

Cook also encouraged graduate students in several ways, says Maria Arendt, who has been working toward her Ph.D. in his lab. “As a mentor, Mark gave you the independence to both succeed and make mistakes, and learn from them. That’s allowed me to develop as an independent researcher and gave me internal confidence in my work.”

Arendt learned what she calls “life lessons” in Cook’s lab while she attended veterinary school. “Every time I thought I did not want to become a vet, I would storm in and say, ‘I’m quitting today,’ but he would find a way to talk me out of it. In a lot of ways, I owe my veterinary degree to Mark. Mark always had a vision of what my career would look like even when I lost sight of that myself.”

“He was very mild-mannered, humble, self-effacing. You would never know he was so accomplished. He made no attempt to create a cult of personality. It was really the opposite.”

John Biondi

In later years, Cook devoted some of his boundless energy to academic affairs, culminating in leadership of the University Committee, a key element of campus faculty governance. “Mark had an intense commitment to UW-Madison, was willing to be a team member at all levels, meaning the department, college, campus — even serving as chair of the University Committee,” says Schaefer.

Cook is survived by his wife, Ellen, described as “the love of my life” in a parting letter to friends and colleagues, and by three children, Lynn, LeighAnn and Crague, and their families.

“Mark wrote that being in our department on this campus was his ‘dream job.’ And he performed as though it was his dream job,” Schaefer says. “We miss him already.”

Mark Cook was profiled in this 2015 video for his Entrepreneurial Achievement Award. University Communications video.

Visitation will be Sunday, Sept. 17, from 4 until 7 p.m. at Cress Funeral Home, 3610 Speedway Rd., Madison. A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 18, 2017 at Blackhawk Church, 9620 Brader Way, Middleton, in the Eastside Auditorium.

]]>Director leaving after helping UW innovators bring ideas to markethttp://news.wisc.edu/director-leaving-after-helping-uw-innovators-bring-ideas-to-market/
Tue, 22 Aug 2017 18:46:33 +0000https://admin.news.wisc.edu/?p=40454John Biondi, the founding director of the Discovery to Product program at UW-Madison, is heading home to his southwestern Wisconsin apple farm after three productive years heading UW-Madison’s groundbreaking effort to move innovation from the laboratory to the startup.

Starting Sept. 1, Biondi will work full time with his wife, Deirdre Birmingham, planting and nurturing specialty cider apple trees at The Cider Farm west of Hollandale in Iowa County.

John Biondi

“I spent three years getting D2P going, and we did some good things in commercializing innovation from campus,” Biondi says. “Now it’s time to turn it over to someone else who can take it to the next level.”

“As the founding director of this innovative campus-wide effort, John accomplished a tremendous amount in a short period,” says Provost Emeritus Paul M. DeLuca Jr., who collaborated with Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) Managing Director Carl Gulbrandsen and UW–Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank in forming D2P, which is open to student, faculty and staff innovators who have not yet formed a company. “These efforts have served to change the engagement of our students, staff and faculty in commercialization of discoveries.”

“John injected a great deal of energy into the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Madison,” says William Murphy, founder of Stem Pharm, a D2P project that produces specialized cells for pharmaceutical and biological research, and a professor of biomedical engineering.

“His emphasis on the ‘lean startup’ approach was quite helpful for several UW faculty and students. His initiatives are already contributing to notable successes throughout the UW campus and beyond.”

D2P was started three years ago as a way to help translate UW-Madison’s research prowess into startup companies and, eventually, jobs. D2P has seen 15 businesses created from the 24 projects it funded. A fresh crop of nine projects are in the pipeline but not yet funded. D2P has consulted with at least 50 other projects on campus, says Biondi.

Biondi was chosen for his entrepreneurial record in finance and management at six technology companies. Two of them developed surgical lasers in the 1980s, during the birth of minimally invasive surgery. Biondi also assisted a health care information technology startup that was the first to use tablet computers at the point of care.

Karu Sankaralingam, founder of SimpleMachines, examines a prototype of his innovative motherboard for data centers. Photo: David Tenenbaum

On campus, Biondi helped transform brilliant ideas into viable companies. Already, more than a half-dozen such business are poised for rapid growth:

SimpleMachines: Karu Sankaralingam, a professor of computer science, is preparing to sell a stripped-down chip with a lower price tag and reduced energy usage to the data centers that power the Internet.

Re Mixers is refining a student invention that reduces waste and speeds mixing of epoxy adhesives.

“John is a great mentor,” says Zhang. “Coming from the business sector, he not only taught us the basic principles but also practical issues in setting up the startup through D2P. Even after BrainXell ‘graduated,’ John periodically checked with us and offered valuable advice. D2P will have a positive impact on UW-Madison, and John has his mark on it.”

D2P was created in 2013 through a joint memorandum of agreement between UW-Madison and WARF. D2P’s mission has been to provide a front door to entrepreneurs and innovators on campus to help them find and leverage resources, foster collaborations, accelerate the commercialization of campus innovations, and help transform the campus culture to cultivate entrepreneurship, startups and commercialization.

In November 2013, the D2P program received a $2.4 million Incentive Grant from the UW System to create Igniter, an education and award program to commercialize UW research and innovation.

“I spent three years getting D2P going, and we did some good things in commercializing innovation from campus. Now it’s time to turn it over to someone else who can take it to the next level.”

John Biondi

“We are thankful for John’s leadership of D2P over the past three years, and in particular, his support of the Igniter education and grant award program,” says Marsha Mailick, U-Madison’s vice chancellor for research and graduate education. “This has been a significant accomplishment for a new campus program that we are excited to continue to support.”

Mailick has appointed her chief of staff, Andy Richards, as interim director of D2P.

“D2P was a great exercise — a good learning experience,” says Biondi, who leaves the university Aug. 31. The program applies “lean startup” principles to innovations born in UW-Madison labs.

For entrepreneurs, a key D2P theme is product-market fit, Biondi says. “That’s the process of getting crisp about the value proposition for any given innovation. Most innovations can serve several markets, but the press of time and money forces entrepreneurs to focus on near-term, affordable markets.”

Re Mixers provides a great example, Biondi says. “If D2P was not there, those young guys would have tried to apply their invention to the process engineering world and would have failed. That market requires lengthy testing and adoption, but few facilities are built each year and they are designed to last for decades.”

Working with D2P, the founders shifted their emphasis to construction, where epoxy nozzles waste valuable adhesive and need frequent replacement. “They did the work and we helped them find a market that could be addressed very nicely with startup resources,” Biondi says.

D2P also emphasizes that technology alone is not enough, Biondi says. “Faculty innovators don’t always realize that just throwing the technology out is no ticket to success.”

Although some innovators have backed away after confronting the time demanded by a startup, “that’s a good thing,” Biondi says. “It’s not always a given that starting a business makes sense.”

One key to D2P’s success, says DeLuca, was Biondi’s emphasis on assembling a broad range of functions in the university. “John brought together campus experts ranging from business to law to patent/licensing to guide ideas into successful products and companies.”

How can UW-Madison improve the entrepreneurial culture that is key to job formation? “Certainly the creativity and skills exist here,” Biondi says. “There is a lot of innovation in the colleges where technology is housed, and the business school is constantly looking for ways to teach and promote innovation.”

“John brought together campus experts ranging from business to law to patent/licensing to guide ideas into successful products and companies.”

Paul M. DeLuca Jr.

But on top of that, he says, “there needs to be a commercial layer that emphasizes tighter coordination, starting when a project leaves the lab. There are constant needs for money, to get the technical proof of concept, to achieve market de-risking. And then, at the time of incorporation, additional equity money is needed for launch and commercialization. The money chain needs to be available on a consistent basis so innovators can count on it.”

Entrepreneurship is not necessarily a natural fit for a university, Biondi says. “Entrepreneurship is flat, network-based, and moves more nimbly and quickly than university structures sometimes allow.”

Still, he says it’s “absolutely” realistic to think about improving the stream of campus startups and spinoffs. “I think we have taken a few steps down that path, but compared to our peers, we are not out in front. And given the assets, range and creativity at UW-Madison, we should be.”

John Biondi tends to the bees on his Mineral Point cider farm. Biondi will venture into the cider business full-time when he leaves the Discovery to Product program at UW-Madison. Photo: Deirdre Birmingham

After three years of helping others start their own companies, John Biondi is leaving his position as director of Discovery to Product (D2P) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison on Aug. 31 to concentrate on his own business.

With apple season right around the corner, he is sure to be busy.

For nearly 15 years, Biondi and his wife, Deirdre Birmingham, have owned a 166-acre farm where they grow and select true cider apples to be used in their ciders and cider brandy. Their goal with The Cider Farm, located in Mineral Point, is to organically produce the finest cider apples that will, in turn, provide the ingredients for true ciders and cider brandies. True cider apples, unlike table apples, have tannins or acids, if not both, like a wine grape has.

“When we bought the farm, we didn’t know what to do with it at first,” Biondi recalls. “No one had lived there for more than 50 years and all of the buildings were long gone. But there were wild apple trees on the farm, so we knew that apple trees grew well there.”

A row of apple trees on The Cider Farm. John Biondi and Deirdre Birmingham painstakingly hand-grafted the trees that would become their orchard. Photo: Deirdre Birmingham

With that in mind, they decided to start an organic farm with an emphasis on the hard cider business.

“At the time, no one else was doing it,” he says. Fast forward to today and cider is one of the fastest-growing alcoholic beverage categories.

Because the varieties of apples they wanted to grow on The Cider Farm were not commercially available, Biondi and Birmingham — who has a Ph.D. in agriculture from UW-Madison and a master’s degree in soil science from the University of Illinois — painstakingly hand-grafted the trees that would become their orchard.

While Biondi says his weekends have been farm-filled ever since, for the last three years, his weekdays have also been devoted to getting UW-Madison’s Discovery to Product off the ground and running.

D2P staff have mentored students, staff and faculty towards technology commercialization, including patenting, partnership with industry, and new company formation.

At D2P, Biondi has shared his experience as a veteran entrepreneur who has worked in early-stage high-technology companies. Throughout his career, he has raised more than $60 million for six early-stage ventures in areas such as nanotechnology, medical devices, biotechnology, software and advanced materials.

D2P was created Sept. 1, 2013, through a joint memorandum of agreement between UW-Madison and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF). D2P’s mission has been to provide a front door to entrepreneurs and innovators on campus to help them find and leverage resources, foster collaborations between UW-Madison and WARF, accelerate the commercialization of campus innovations, and help transform the campus culture to cultivate entrepreneurship, startups and commercialization of innovations.

John Biondi

In November 2013, the D2P program received a $2.4 million Incentive Grant from the UW System to create Igniter, an education and award program to commercialize UW research and innovation.

“We are thankful for John’s leadership of D2P over the past three years, and in particular, his support of the Igniter education and grant award program,” says Marsha Mailick, vice chancellor for research and graduate education at UW-Madison. “This has been a significant accomplishment for a new campus program that we are excited to continue to support.”

Mailick has appointed Andy Richards, chief of staff for the vice chancellor for research and graduate education, as interim director of D2P.

D2P was first located in Bascom Hall and then moved to 1403 University Ave. in what may be one of the most aromatic office spaces around campus — it shares a building with a sub sandwich shop and a Chinese restaurant. Still, Biondi says it is a great location given its central campus location and close proximity to the School of Engineering, Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, College of Agricultural and Life Sciences and the Wisconsin School of Business.

In that space, the D2P staff have mentored UW-Madison students, staff and faculty towards successful technology commercialization outcomes, including patenting, partnership with industry, and new company formation, thus putting the Wisconsin Idea into action.

Under Biondi’s leadership, D2P has consulted with several hundred campus innovators, mentored more than 40 projects, and helped create 16 startup companies. Through one-on-one mentoring and workshops, D2P helps innovators take ideas born out of dorms and labs from technical proof of concept — to show the idea actually works — out to the market. D2P helps with financials, creating a business plan, or whatever is needed.

“I’ve enjoyed working with the researchers here at UW-Madison and having the opportunity to be a part of the university as an engine of economic development in the state.”

John Biondi

Among successful student projects in D2P’s client roster is one called Spectrom, developed by undergraduate engineers, that provides a method for 3-D color printing. Another, ReMex, commercialized a unique static mixing design that allows producers of resins and epoxies to mix fluids with greater efficiency, significantly reducing product waste.

D2P has helped commercialize multiple faculty projects across the life and physical sciences as well as the bio-agricultural and computer sciences area.

“I’ve enjoyed working with the researchers here at UW-Madison and having the opportunity to be a part of the university as an engine of economic development in the state,” Biondi says.

However, that contribution is not coming to an end, as this serial entrepreneur steps up his game taking his own ideas to market with The Cider Farm. The Cider Farm’s hard ciders are already on tap in select restaurants and Whole Foods Markets with tap lines in Madison, Milwaukee and Chicago.

Biondi, who refers to himself as the “chief tractor officer” on the farm, says he intends to keep busy putting more trees in the ground, moving and erecting deer fencing, establishing a prairie, reclaiming timberland from invasive species, and building on the business – maybe even taking it from kegs to bottles sometime soon.

]]>Five finalists in Governor’s Business Plan Contest have UW-Madison tieshttp://news.wisc.edu/five-finalists-in-governors-business-plan-contest-have-uw-madison-ties/
Wed, 07 Jun 2017 19:27:47 +0000https://admin.news.wisc.edu/?p=38359A young business that makes an assist device to orient firefighters in smoky fire scenes won the overall prize at the 2017 Governor’s Business Plan Contest.

The winner, Northern Star Fire, was selected from 171 entrants, it was announced today at the Wisconsin Entrepreneurs Conference in Madison.

Northern Star Fire makes an eight-directional electronic compass that is mounted inside a firefighter’s breathing apparatus to help maintain and/or regain their orientation in low-visibility conditions. Company founder Jeff Dykes, of Eau Claire, has 20 years of experience in firefighting.

“One hundred firefighters die in the line of work each year in the United States,” Dykes says. “Our goal is to help them know where they are, and which direction they can go to rescue themselves. And more important, so they can rescue you.”

Upon learning he’d won the grand prize, Dykes said, “When I go inside your house, I don’t know your floor plan. When I am oriented, I can save you. That’s the calling of the firefighter. I am ecstatic to win.”

The contest links upcoming entrepreneurs with a statewide network of community resources, expert advice, high-quality education, management talent and possible sources of capital.

Five of the 13 finalists had roots at UW-Madison.

Cellular Logistics: A spinoff from research by Eric Schmuck, Amish Raval and others at the Wisconsin Institutes of Medical Research, Cellular Logistics is advancing two heart-care products. One is a non-cell therapy, that, according to animal studies, restores the heart’s pumping function. The planned compound will be available on the shelf, ready to restore muscular function after heart attack. The second product is designed to aid stem-cell therapy to replace diseased heart muscle. Stem cells are typically washed out of the heart before they have time to produce muscle cells. Both products are designed to replace or augment stenting and/or heart drugs.

Cardigan: Business cards are 400 years old, but the technology industry has not produced a digital solution, until now, says Matt Younkle, a UW-Madison graduate and serial entrepreneur. “Paper cards are tired,” he says. “When you pass out a card, you are handing someone data-entry work to get it into the contact list. We know there is poor follow-up, missed opportunities.” Younkle’s startup, Cardigan, is a smartphone app that enables the instant exchange of the information typically held on a business card. The app even enables data transfer when only one user has it. “We are tightly focused on face-to-face, we are not making a multi- purpose app,” Younkle says. “Meeting in person is what we are trying to solve.”

EWPanel: A solution for dead batteries in personal fitness trackers – Fitbits and the like – could be at hand in a “nanogeneration” device that creates small electric currents from a thin film. The device is based on an invention by Xudong Wang, associate professor of material science at UW-Madison, and Ph.D. student Chunhua Yao. The 60 million fitness trackers sold each year could be powered by batteries that would be recharged with a membrane housed in the shoe.

ThirdSpace: Scott Kohl, who has an economics degree and an MBA from UW-Madison, founded ThirdSpace to foster and document “business culture.” Culture, Kohl says, “Is the hottest topic in business; some say it causes $750 billion in losses. I’ve

Scott Kohl

worked in a lot of places with horrific culture. I’ve seen people who are completely lost, isolated, walking the halls, wasting their lives for a paycheck. But I’ve also been in amazing workplace cultures and wished there was a way to preserve it.” The three modules in ThirdSpace are aimed at the process of onboarding, creating relationships and empathy, and archiving institutional knowledge (in a module called “the brain.”) The company is targeting businesses with between 30 and 500 employees.

Synesis: To maintain health in people who rely on tube feeding, often due to swallowing difficulty related to cancer, neurological disease, surgery or developmental delay. Synesis LLC of Wisconsin Rapids is developing a plant derivative that boosts immune protection from pathogens in the gastrointestinal tract. These symptoms,

Christian Krueger

including bloating, cramping and gastrointestinal infection, can range from painful to life-threatening. In mouse experiments, the patented compound has improved key markers for immune response, suggesting that it could help people on enteral feeding. “We believe about 450,000 people in the United States rely on tube feeding and live at home,” says Christian Krueger, a company co-founder and scientist in the department of animal science at UW-Madison. The company’s product is classified as a “medical food” by the Food and Drug Administration, and therefore less difficult to approve than a pharmaceutical.

UW-Madison’s annual Entrepreneurial Achievement Awards Thursday were given to two alumni — Michele Boal and Troy Vosseller — for their entrepreneurial success and commitment to encouraging the next generation of entrepreneurs.

They were honored Thursday, May 4, in a ceremony at the Discovery Building.

The paths to success for many past winners of the Entrepreneurial Achievement Awards share common threads — long hours, creativity, dedication. The winners this year share an additional commonality: They both started down the entrepreneurial path selling T-shirts on campus. One continued down that path to State Street and the other headed west to Silicon Valley.

Boal is the co-founder and chief philanthropy officer of Quotient Technology (formerly Coupons.com), a Mountain View, California, company she started with her husband in their basement in 1998 that has grown to 650 employees around the world. She also started Coupons for Change in 2011 to help end childhood hunger.

Boal is a 1991 graduate of the UW-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication. She is a member of the Silicon Valley Social Venture Fund and remains active with the UW, serving on the College of Letters & Science Board of Visitors and speaking to students from around campus about her entrepreneurial experience.

Vosseller is the co-founder and managing director of gener8tor Madison and Milwaukee, an accelerator for high-growth startups. Gener8tor has helped launched more than 30 companies and secured millions in venture capital for Wisconsin companies. He also co-founded Sconnie, an apparel company located on State Street that was launched out of his dorm room.

Vosseller has deep ties to UW-Madison. After earning his B.A., MBA and J.D. from the UW, he was an assistant clinical professor/supervising attorney at the Law School’s Law and Entrepreneurship Clinic.

Chancellor Rebecca Blank presented the awards to Boal and Vosseller while saluting their efforts to encourage and support future entrepreneurs.

“Each of these successful entrepreneurs is a tremendous asset to our university and the business community,” said Blank. “We are proud to call them Badgers, and thankful for their tireless support of our students and this university.

“One of the things that makes this event special is that it brings our students together with successful alumni and entrepreneurs who know what it’s like to have a vision and what it takes to make that vision a reality.”

The Entrepreneurial Achievement Awards are a product of UW-Madison’s efforts to create a campus culture that cultivates creativity and encourages innovation. The entrepreneurial major and the certificate program in the Wisconsin School of Business continue to grow each year.

Past winners of the award include: Christopher Salm, founder of Salm Partners and the first chair of UW-Madison’s Meat Lab industry advisory committee; Andrew Ziegler, co-founder and managing partner of Artisan Partners LLC and owner of Erin Hills golf course; Pavan Nigam, a serial entrepreneur and angel investor who founded the company that’s now WebMD; Judy Faulkner, who founded Epic Systems in 1979; James Weinert, who endowed the Weinert Center for Entrepreneurship and created Weinert Applied Ventures in Entrepreneurship; Elisa All, founder and president of 30Second Mobile; Michael Shannon, founder and managing director of KSL Capital Partners; and Animal Sciences faculty member Mark E. Cook, who founded Aova Technologies and co-founded Isomark LLC.

]]>App offers fast track for inserting photos into medical recordhttp://news.wisc.edu/app-offers-fast-track-for-inserting-photos-into-medical-record/
Wed, 08 Mar 2017 21:07:22 +0000https://admin.news.wisc.edu/?p=35003When Richard Bruce and Gary Wendt, both professedly “geeks at heart,” assessed the medical imaging landscape in the early 2000s, they were astonished to find that nearly all medical images were being transferred between hospitals on compact discs rather than through the internet.

That was old-school, and not in a good way, says Bruce, who had previously worked at the network giant Cisco Systems. “The transition between Silicon Valley and medical school was like stepping into the dark ages for IT. So many industries had leveraged IT, but medicine lagged behind,” he says.

Today, the product of that astonishment is ImageMoverMD, a Middleton business that Bruce and Wendt founded in 2013 to streamline image processing in hospitals and clinics, and enable quick consultations between specialists. The company makes a smartphone app that, in just seconds, can transmit photos through Epic Systems’ electronic health record system to a secure image archive. The software also works with the Meditech electronic health record system, which dominates in the smaller-hospital market, says Pickard.

Gary Wendt

Both Wendt, the ImageMoverMD president, and Bruce are full-time radiologists at the UW-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health. “ImageMoverMD would not exist without the concentration of expertise and resources at UW-Madison,” says Bruce, the company’s chief technology officer.

ImageMoverMD can be used by providers and patients alike, using Android and Apple smartphones. The system is integrated into the electronic health record systems for provider use throughout UW Health and Marshfield Clinic.

A second function, the e-Visit, is being piloted for certain UW Health dermatology clinic patients.

The company has six full-time employees at its Middleton headquarters. Wendt and Bruce contribute time after their UW responsibilities are completed.

As the two went through medical school, they continued to wonder about the paucity of IT-driven information exchange in medicine. “Even though UW-Madison was one of the most connected medical establishments, UW Health was taking in 8,000 CDs a month,” Bruce says. “When we looked at the cost and the number of people involved in the workflow, we saw that the import of one CD cost $10 to $15. That added up to real money and massive headaches.”

Even using a digital camera, “a medical assistant would need 10 or 15 minutes to upload the images and attach them to a patient record, and there were issues with lost camera cards or filing to the wrong patient,” Bruce says.

Bruce and Wendt are both MDs who specialize in imaging the brain and spinal cord. Wendt is enterprise director of medical imaging and vice chair of informatics at UW-Madison, where Bruce is medical director of radiology informatics.

Seeking to ramp up efficiency and reduce errors, they worked with a developer to write software to import images from CDs, but other priorities sidelined the work before a working prototype was developed. As neither the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation nor UW-Madison was interested in the project, Bruce and Wendt decided to form a company and try it themselves. Two years ago, they brought on K. Thomas Pickard as CEO to build the business and commercialize the technology.

Thomas Pickard

Meanwhile, the image-handling problem was exploding with the advent of smartphones with wireless-enabled cameras. “There were probably hundreds of providers here who would admit to having taken patient photos with a personal device and sending them in a text to a consultant,” Bruce says.

Using ImageMoverMD, the whole process should take 20 seconds, once the medical record is open, as it usually is during a clinic visit. “With one click you can get a QR code on the computer screen,” Bruce explains. “The only thing our app can do is scan the QR code, which then lets you take pictures and send them to the correct electronic health record. The magic is all about the workflow, to make this process as simple as possible. No photos remain on the camera.”

ImageMoverMD must obey regulations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) concerning how medical photos are used, transmitted and stored. But Bruce and Wendt also required their system to seamlessly integrate with the electronic health record.

Bruce says photos could be useful in many medical situations. “A family practice physician can send a picture of a rash to the medical record for a consult with a dermatologist. A nurse treating a pressure ulcer could send photos showing changes over time and obviating the need for regular bedside visits.”

Like many good ideas, this one has the air of inevitability. Who would not want to transmit photos directly to a medical chart? And yet Bruce says that when he and Wendt looked around, “we were not able to find anything that worked from a workflow standpoint. If you can’t match the speed of taking and texting a picture, it’s not going to be a solution that people will actually use. We are that fast.”

]]>WEDC awards $75,000 to Law & Entrepreneurship Clinichttp://news.wisc.edu/wedc-awards-75000-to-law-entrepreneurship-clinic/
Tue, 31 Jan 2017 15:18:51 +0000https://admin.news.wisc.edu/?p=34122The Law & Entrepreneurship Clinic at University of Wisconsin Law School has been awarded a $75,000 Entrepreneurship Support grant from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation. The award means the clinic can expand its offering of no-cost legal services for entrepreneurs, especially those in the food and beverage sector.

That’s good news for area entrepreneurs, who, for all their creative wealth, can find themselves short on legal know-how — and on cash. The clinic offers them free early-stage legal and business counseling to help set their startups on the path to growth.

All the legal work is performed by UW Law students, who are preparing to become practice-ready transactional attorneys. Under the supervision of licensed attorneys, students manage clients, lead meetings and direct their own research.

Anne Smith

According to director Anne Smith, approximately 1,500 clients have benefited from the clinic’s services since it opened its doors in 2009, but Wisconsin’s food and beverage industry has been underrepresented. Now the clinic is gearing up to provide food and beverage startups with specialized outreach, training and legal services.

“With the grant money, we’ll be able to help our clients comply with complex state and federal food safety regulations, as well as dealing with other hurdles they might encounter early on,” Smith says.

Funds from the grant will also help the clinic meet the evolving needs of its clients. WEDC funds are slated to support the development of the clinic’s patent practice and increase its capacity to work with international entrepreneurs.

“The added expertise and tools enable us to strategically advise startups so they can avoid future pitfalls and appropriately manage their businesses down the road,” Smith says. “Ultimately, the state’s economy benefits.”

And she says, boosting the state economy is part of the L&E Clinic mission. Last year alone, the clinic’s free services amounted to nearly 7,200 hours, which collectively saved clients over $1 million in fees. A recent clinic survey found that 75 percent of its clients have remained in business, 22 percent had annual revenues of $100,000 or more, and 10% employ five or more people.

The L&E Clinic is one of 11 organizations to receive nearly $500,000 in total funding through the WEDC’s new Entrepreneurship Support pilot program. The program aims to grow entrepreneurship throughout the state, with education, mentorship and training, business development and financial services.